Sunday, December 25, 2011

Yuletide Tunes

For all the current readers of Critics at Large, we've resurrected the Luna Sea Notes website to publish previous posts. The idea is to introduce readers to pieces they may have missed from earlier in our incarnation. Since we now have a huge body of work to draw from, the goal is to post articles that may also have some relevance to events of the day.

Everyone has their favourite Christmas songs - from traditional to Elvis - but Susan Green opened the field to include some other tracks that should bear consideration on your playlist. Merry Christmas to all - and to all, a good tune.

As the troublesome decade draws to a close, people are compiling their top-ten lists for various art forms. I’d like to think back instead on a half-century of popular music that was able to, as a traditional gospel line suggests, “rock my soul in the bosom of Abraham.” Each tune has stuck with me. Not every one of the past 50 years is represented; some supplied multiple selections -- I could barely escape the 1960s, in fact. It wasn’t easy to choose from among so many worthy contenders. My apologies to the Supremes, Ray Charles, the Beach Boys, Etta James, Elvis Presley, Elvis Costello, the Grateful Dead, Jackson Browne, The Kinks, Led Zeppelin, Elton John, Mark Knopfler, Jesse Winchester, Bonnie Raitt and countless others. Disco and hip-hop aside, these are a few of a nostalgic Baby Boomer’s highly subjective favorite things:

1. “Bad Girl” (1959), Smokey Robinson and the Miracles

OK, I’m cheating a little, though maybe that’s kosher since this doo wop smash was released in the fall of 1959, propelling the group to instant fame. When I saw him in a late 1980s solo concert, this was the number that seemed to blow everyone away.

2.“(There is a Rose in) Spanish Harlem” (1960), Ben E. King

The haunting Latina-favored ballad by Jerry Leiber and Phil Spector came out just before Christmas.

3.“Walk On By” (1963), Dionne Warwick

She reached a creative peak with this Burt Bacharach weepie that invariably coaxes a few tears from my eyes.

4.“She’s Not There” (1964), The Zombies

As the arrangement builds, its intensity conveys a certain madness brought on by doomed adoration.

5.“Tomorrow is a Long Time” (1964), Ian and Sylvia

Today really is “an endless highway” in their rendition of this Bob Dylan composition.

6.“In My Life” (1965), The Beatles

Only one hit from their spectacular repertoire but, for some reason, I love it more.

7.”Ballad of a Thin Man” (1965), Bob Dylan

Something was indeed “happening here,” as the era cranked up a lunatic momentum.

8. “Mr. Tambourine Man” (1965), The Byrds

With a nod to Dylan, they definitely took me “disappearing through the smoke rings of my mind.”

9.“Morning, Morning” (1966), The Fugs

Tuli Kupferberg’s tender reverie about loneliness was surprising from a group that also sang “Slum Goddess of the Lower East Side.”

10. “Suzanne” (1966), Leonard Cohen

I may be understandably partial to this name, even though I never had a place by the river.

11.“Nights in White Satin” (1967), The Moody Blues

It’s a primal scream of existential pain that still gives me chills.

12. “White Rabbit” (1967), Jefferson Airplane

A mesmerizing paean to the upside of the drug culture.

13.“Janis” (1967), Country Joe and the Fish

An ode to Joplin and a shout-out to rock ‘n’ roll romance: “Into my life, on waves of electrical sound/ and flashing lights she came...”

14.“If 6 Was 9” (1967), Jimi Hendrix

He sings of resignation to “white-collar conservative” intolerance for his hippie lifestyle and black skin, but the heartache is evident.

15.“In a Station” (1968), The Band

I‘m always shattered by Richard Manuel’s close-to-the-bone vocals on lyrics like “Out of all the idle scheming/ can’t we have something to feel?”

16.“Hello, Sunshine” (1968), Aretha Franklin

A sweet melody about the transformative power of positive emotions.

17.“Piece of My Heart” (1968), Big Brother and the Holding Company

Janis Joplin borrows from Erma Franklin’s original with wrenching immediacy.

18.“Urge for Going” (1968), Tom Rush

He does justice to Joni Mitchell’s poetic take on autumn with a need to “lock that vagrant winter out and bolt my wandering in.”

19. “Love is Just a Four Letter Word” (1968), Joan Baez

Another Dylan masterpiece, in this case about betrayal.

20.“Darkness, Darkness” (1969), Jesse Colin Young

Who can’t relate to “yearning for the things I cannot see,” I wonder?

21.“Cowgirl in the Sand” (1969), Neil Young

I’m not sure what he means, but it’s lovely imagery just the same.

22.“Into the Mystic” (1970), Van Morrison

At my age, I can believe we were “born before the wind.”

23. “Instant Karma” (1970), John Lennon

Every concept is true, “like the moon and the stars and the sun.”

24.“So Far Away” (1971), Carol King

“Doesn’t anybody stay in one place anymore?” A crucial question for our contemporary sense of dislocation.

A remarkable chartbuster that gets me cheering for the downfall of empires ancient and modern.

46. “Girls in Their Summer Clothes” (2009), Bruce Springsteen

A vivid word picture with specificity and affection for the simple pleasures of youth.

47. “(If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To” (2009), Weezer

Frontman Rivers Cuomo belts out a catchy sardonic single about sex from the Ratitude CD.

48.“The High Road” (2009), Broken Bells

The only dirge I’ve ever heard that addresses the issue of post-traumatic stress disorder, but done with elliptical grace.

49.“High in the Morning” (2010), Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

A brilliant tale about the downside of the drug culture.

50. “Home” (2010), Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros

In a deceptively old-fashioned country mode, this infectiously energetic, hip band has recorded a call-and-response anthem about bonding. When’s the last time any of us said, “holy moly, me-oh-my”?

- originally published on December 19, 2010 in Critics at Large.

-- Susan Green is a film critic and arts journalist based in Burlington, Vermont. She is the co-author with Kevin Courrier ofLaw & Order: The Unofficial Companion and with Randee Dawn of Law & Order Special Victims Unit: The Unofficial Companion.